This spring, one of Kerafast’s providing investigators, Dr. James Crowe, Jr. of Vanderbilt University, spoke at TEDxNashville about the human immune system. His talk discussed how the body is able to defend against the constant threat of infectious pathogens and highlighted a new research project to sequence all the antibodies in the entire human population.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that more than 2 million people in the United States become infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria resulting in at least 23,000 deaths annually. Antibiotic resistance is of growing concern with the increase in resistant bacterial strains and the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria. The
New research from University of California, Santa Cruz reveals a repair mechanism that allows cells to rescue very damaged chromosomes during the cell division process. The study was published this June in the Journal of Cell Biology. Cells use a variety of checkpoints and safeguards to maintain chromosome integrity during cell growth and division. If
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), which remains one of the top ten causes of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A recent study by investigators at Oregon State University identified mechanisms that the bacteria use to evade antibiotics and thus paves the way for new treatments for
In a study published in Nature Methods this spring, a team of researchers developed a way to use standard light microscopes to obtain very high-resolution pictures of tissue samples. The new method, termed iterative expansion microscopy, enables imaging at a resolution of 25 nanometers. Because it doesn’t require any specialized equipment, the new technique is
Lentiviral vectors can mediate the efficient delivery, integration and expression of transgenes or short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in dividing as well as non-dividing cell hosts, either in vitro or in several organs in vivo. Lentiviruses enable stable long-term gene expression and are permanently integrated into the host genome. They have become important research tools, useful
The Kerafast fellowship program provides scientists with real-life experience in technology commercialization, helping them develop skills for careers on the business side of life science. Our fellows work onsite at select providing institutions to identify, characterize and eventually commercialize novel research tools created by other scientists at their institution. One such fellow is Dr. Lidia
Dendritic cells (DCs) are important components of the immune system, where they take up antigens and present them to T cells. DCs stimulate T cells and cause their expansion such that they can track down and fight threats in the body, such as viruses or cancerous cells. DC-based vaccines have shown some promise treating prostate
Adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) is a promising immunotherapy approach in which researchers engineer a patient’s own T cells to improve their cancer-fighting abilities. The approach involves harvesting T cells from a patient, quickly multiplying the cells in a laboratory and often engineering them to attack cancer cells more effectively. Then, the T cells are
Zika virus is spread through the bite of infected Aedus species mosquitoes. While generally not a major concern to healthy adults, infection with Zika virus poses a significant threat to pregnant women and their fetuses. Zika infection while pregnant can lead to serious birth defects such as microcephaly and congenital Zika syndrome. Given the mode